The impact of job losses is spreading across the Gamer Network, affecting staff at Eurogamer and several sister publications.
The games media landscape is facing another period of instability as Eurogamer and other outlets under the IGN-owned Gamer Network banner began a series of significant staff reductions this week.
According to sources familiar with the matter, British outlet Eurogamer is currently undergoing its second wave of layoffs since its former parent company, ReedPop, sold the business in early 2024. These cuts have reportedly impacted high-level editorial veterans as well as the entire four-person video production department. At least one position is reportedly being transitioned directly into IGN’s core team.
The downsizing has also reached the production staff at Outside Xbox, a major YouTube brand with over 3.5 million subscribers that recently finished a live tour across the United Kingdom.
Parent company IGN Entertainment, which operates under Ziff Davis, acquired the Gamer Network group in May 2024 for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition brought established names like GamesIndustry.biz, Rock Paper Shotgun, and VG247 under its umbrella, along with stakes in Outside Xbox and Hookshot—the firm behind Nintendo Life.
Following the acquisition, Gamer Network brands have navigated a period of editorial turbulence marked by job cuts, internal reshuffling, and the offloading of specific assets. Shortly after the deal was finalized, the tabletop gaming site Dicebreaker was closed, and a voluntary redundancy scheme initiated by Ziff Davis led to further departures across the network.
Last summer saw a quiet migration of talent between the brands. After Eurogamer’s Editor-in-Chief moved to a new position at IGN, following a similar move by his predecessor in 2023, almost the entire editorial team at VG247 was reassigned to Eurogamer. Those roles at VG247 were never backfilled; the news site, which launched in 2008, has essentially been scaled back to a small guides unit managed by just two staff writers.
Recent data from Press Engine, shared with VGC in October, highlights the severity of the crisis in the sector. Over the last two years, the global pool of games journalists has contracted by 25%, with more than 1,200 writers who regularly covered the industry losing their roles.
Source: iXBT.games